2025 01 08
Not dead! Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Iāve had local news coverage from LA on in the background all day today. Itās such a devastating, surreal, grim situation out there. Not sure what else to say about it aside from wish the best of luck for the safety of everyone out there. Fire is terrifying itself but fire mixed with intense wind is something else completely. Nothing you can do but pray. I canāt stop wondering how this started and thinking that it couldāve been one person that sparked the madness, whether maliciously or accidentally, which led to so much loss.
-Clayton
2025 01 06
My Creative Resolution for 2025
After what I consider a very successful Creative Resolution in 2024 (this here blog!), I plan to continue this approach of pursuing a personal creative endeavor and introduce a new routine into my life. The blogging will continue (hopefully), albeit at a less-robust pace, but my big aim for the new year is to dedicate more time to making photos and videos, in addition to writing. In order to motivate myself to do this, I came up with a structure that I think will be fun, allow me to further explore my own city, and give me something bigger to work towards in order to keep the whole thing going for an entire year, and hopefully longer.
The system is derived largely from my own personal interests (projects and ideas Iāve wanted to explore) and inspired from the āartist dateā approach as outlined in The Artistās Way. Once per week, I will take some time to myself and venture out on Chicagoās CTA train system to explore a part of town that inspires me to createā¦something. Maybe this will be a gallery of images, maybe a short video, maybe just words. I aim not to put a bunch of pressure on myself, but hope that in getting myself out of the house in a more regular fashion, it will spur new thoughts and ideas that otherwise would not occur while sitting on my couch reading twitter. By yearās end, the goal is to have the whole train system covered.
Initially, this Creative Resolution began as an effort to get myself back into street photography. While I do still aim to explore this, I was worried that restricting this year-long exercise to making candid images on the streets would be too limiting and ultimately may not be what I want to focus my efforts on. I still have a love for street images, but itās far more complicated than it was when I was a young photographer wandering the streets two+ decades ago.
That said, Iāve been getting quite inspired by seeing the work of many young street photographers (largely via Paulie Bās great youtube channel) and this has been pushing me to get back out to re-explore those same urges I had back then. I had a longer post in the works that attempted to define my thoughts on what street photography has become, revolving around the complications with todayās society and the need for consent, but ultimately that proved impossible to cohesively summarize with the perspective I currently have, largely as an outsider looking in.
Finding myself on the streets. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
My Creative Resolution for 2025
After what I consider a very successful Creative Resolution in 2024 (this here blog!), I plan to continue this approach of pursuing a personal creative endeavor and introduce a new routine into my life. The blogging will continue (hopefully), albeit at a less-robust pace, but my big aim for the new year is to dedicate more time to making photos and videos, in addition to writing. In order to motivate myself to do this, I came up with a structure that I think will be fun, allow me to further explore my own city, and give me something bigger to work towards in order to keep the whole thing going for an entire year, and hopefully longer.
The system is derived largely from my own personal interests (projects and ideas Iāve wanted to explore) and inspired from the āartist dateā approach as outlined in The Artistās Way. Once per week, I will take some time to myself and venture out on Chicagoās CTA train system to explore a part of town that inspires me to createā¦something. Maybe this will be a gallery of images, maybe a short video, maybe just words. I aim not to put a bunch of pressure on myself, but hope that in getting myself out of the house in a more regular fashion, it will spur new thoughts and ideas that otherwise would not occur while sitting on my couch reading twitter. By yearās end, the goal is to have the whole train system covered.
Initially, this Creative Resolution began as an effort to get myself back into street photography. While I do still aim to explore this, I was worried that restricting this year-long exercise to making candid images on the streets would be too limiting and ultimately may not be what I want to focus my efforts on. I still have a love for street images, but itās far more complicated than it was when I was a young photographer wandering the streets two+ decades ago.
That said, Iāve been getting quite inspired by seeing the work of many young street photographers (largely via Paulie Bās great youtube channel) and this has been pushing me to get back out to re-explore those same urges I had back then. I had a longer post in the works that attempted to define my thoughts on what street photography has become, revolving around the complications with todayās society and the need for consent, but ultimately that proved impossible to cohesively summarize with the perspective I currently have, largely as an outsider looking in.
The street is where my love affair with photography began. Today, the street is sort of the antithesis of how I make a living through photography. This analogy is not lost on me and is one I struggle with often. My photography style largely relies on authenticity (agency buzz word alert!), yet my commercial work is fully contrived. This might sound harsh, but we make commercial images in a controlled setting, with the help of a team full of stylists, assistants, and art directors. There is nothing natural about this!
Lately, Iāve been very inspired by the various younger street photographers. People are shooting film again and thereās an unmistakable feel of nostalgia in the air. At the same time, however, cameras are a constant way of life for everyone and no moment is innocent anymore. The vision of street photography that I yearn for is physically impossible in this day and time, replaced with a fear of exploitation and social media instant gratification.
There are two videos that help summarize my thoughts on this matter. The first, an interview with photographer Daniel Arnold, helps clarify my own personal internal struggle in the sense than I see many similarities between him and myself. The defining difference being his amazing body of work was made mostly for himself, while my body of work has been made mostly for paid clients. He also moved to NYC, where artists tend to get noticed, while I stayed in the Midwest. I sense that heās in a place now where he is navigating the landscape of doing more paid work and sharing less personal work, while Iām attempting to do the opposite after years of focusing a bit too much on the paid assignments. Whether itās possible to successfully do both remains to be seen but is what I plan to explore.
You can watch the Daniel Arnold interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Zywq5me3k
Secondly, this video perfect encapsulated my complicated and complex thoughts towards street photography today. Itās an inherently awkward and exploitive art form, but when mastered itās perhaps the most human art form we have.
You can watch that video featuring photographer Matt Weber here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OXfztsnt7M&t=323s
See ya on the streets in 2025.
-Clayton
This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of posts, see 2024 12 25.
2025 01 05
Another day not posting my 2025 Creative Resolution. Iāll get to that tomorrow, maybe. Iāve been distracted with another one of my year-end resolutions.
This sunset image reminded me of a sunrise photographer video I was sent this morning by my buddy and fellow photographer Dave. Itās fitting, in the sense that his project began from a creative resolution as well, and heās been photographing the sunrise every day now for years. It became his job, his calling, his identity.
-Clayton
Sunset over Lake Michigan. Benton Harbor, Michigan. October, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Another day not posting my 2025 Creative Resolution. Iāll get to that tomorrow, maybe. Iāve been distracted with another one of my year-end resolutions.
This sunset image reminded me of a sunrise photographer video I was sent this morning by my buddy and fellow photographer Dave. Itās fitting, in the sense that his project began from a creative resolution as well, and heās been photographing the sunrise every day now for years. It became his job, his calling, his identity.
-Clayton
2025 01 03
This camera is so far gone but I continue to use it nonetheless. I tell myself I like the look the layer of dust is giving me. Honestly, I kind of do. Each time I go to buy a new one, they are not available. Everyone loves the Ricoh, apparently. Plus, spending a thousand bucks doesnāt sound very appealing right now. Itās probably time to attempt a surgery and see if I canāt remove some of this madness. If I fuck it up in the process, maybe itāll get me to shoot more film again!
While researching the photographer Weegee (for no reason whatsoever!), I learned that he did a bunch of work with prisms later in his career. Interestingly, he did a series of images of Marilyn Monroe where her face is all distorted but you can still tell itās her. Itās the kind of thing you might find profound in high school art class.
This is why I think Iām making groundbreaking work here with my Dirty-Sensor Ricoh. Itās profound and amazing. Maybe I will start to sell cameras that have dirty sensors to high school photography students!
Oh yeah, the creative resolution post is still in the works. Will get to it, eventually. Probably.
-Clayton
The dust adds visual interest. Somewhere between Streator and Pontiac, Illinois. November, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This camera is so far gone but I continue to use it nonetheless. I tell myself I like the look the layer of dust is giving me. Honestly, I kind of do. Each time I go to buy a new one, they are not available. Everyone loves the Ricoh, apparently. Plus, spending a thousand bucks doesnāt sound very appealing right now. Itās probably time to attempt a surgery and see if I canāt remove some of this madness. If I fuck it up in the process, maybe itāll get me to shoot more film again!
While researching the photographer Weegee (for no reason whatsoever!), I learned that he did a bunch of work with prisms later in his career. Interestingly, he did a series of images of Marilyn Monroe where her face is all distorted but you can still tell itās her. Itās the kind of thing you might find profound in high school art class.
This is why I think Iām making groundbreaking work here with my Dirty-Sensor Ricoh. Itās profound and amazing. Maybe I will start to sell cameras that have dirty sensors to high school photography students!
Oh yeah, the creative resolution post is still in the works. Will get to it, eventually. Probably.
-Clayton
2025 01 02
It was my intention to post about my new creative resolution for 2025, however, today being the first day back at work, I got sidetracked with bureaucracy and didnāt get around to finishing the text. That said, I wasnāt loving the text and decided to change it all anyway. Weāll see if I can make it happen tomorrow. The suspense will kill you, Iām sure.
-Clayton
Sunset on Wooded Island. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
It was my intention to post about my new creative resolution for 2025, however, today being the first day back at work, I got sidetracked with bureaucracy and didnāt get around to finishing the text. That said, I wasnāt loving the text and decided to change it all anyway. Weāll see if I can make it happen tomorrow. The suspense will kill you, Iām sure.
-Clayton